Those are not the exact words used by Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians, but there are very much alike. That was the advice my mother gave me when I got my first job. I’ve been trying to do it that way always. The first time I read 1st Corinthians chapter 13, I couldn’t understand it. Later though my Christian life I have been getting more and more understanding of these sacred verses. Especially this past Sunday, when I had to share some spiritual meditation based in God’s word with the congregation of Arlington Iglesia de Cristo.

We had a very heartfelt worship service, many new visitors attended, and some previous visitors came again. I spoke about the ways God prepared His church to go out to bring the Good News; using miracles, prophesies, and knowledge. The church in Corinth was proud of their teachers, prophets, preachers, brothers and sisters with the gift to do different kinds of miracles and others that spoke in tongues. However, the apostle Paul urged them to practice more the fraternal love, humbleness, and to seek God’s love to share with others. It is the kind of love that will last forever.

Sometimes as ministers of the gospel, we tend to consider ourselves as professional workers. Our weekly work is completed at the end of the worship service. But usually God has different plans. For example, this past Sunday He had different plans for me.

After getting home to have dinner with my wife and children, I got a phone call from someone in need. Should I say no? Is there nobody else that could help them? Generally, when someone called you asking for help it’s because you are probably his or her last resource. The words of Paul I barely spoke 45 minutes ago came to my mind:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV

How is God talking to you today? Is He doing it by someone else…, by certain circumstances…, by understanding difficult scriptures? To me, He spoke by a phone call asking for help.

Now Father, are you asking me to go and practice the message of the lesson I was teaching this morning? …He didn’t to tell me twice; I understood it very clear.

At the end of the day, I received a “thank you, God bless you” from a grateful soul. Then, I remember and paraphrased Jesus’ words regarding his friend, Lazarus’s illness:

“These (actions) ….will help to show the glory of God and the Glory of His Son Jesus Christ.” John 11:4 ESV

I believe that somebody else, in a near future, will come and visit us, the Lord’s family here in Arlington! —-Omar Corpus